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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Cops make call on
whether to seize vehicleQuestion: What is the law regarding a vehicle driven with an expired registration on a City and County of Honolulu road? On May 3, someone driving a pickup truck with 2001 expired license plates, an expired safety sticker and no driver's license damaged my parked truck. In my younger days, any vehicle on a city road with expired license tax was impounded. I was not at home, but an HPD report was left in my truck. Shouldn't police have prevented the vehicle from being driven away?
Answer: There is a law that gives police -- and the county director of finance -- the authority to have a vehicle with no current registration towed away.
However, police seldom go that far, said police Maj. Bryan Wauke, of the Honolulu Police Department's Traffic Division.
Section 249-10 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes says the director of finance or any police officer "may" seize any vehicle not having the required license plates or any vehicle with unpaid taxes. The vehicle has to be held for at least 10 days, giving the owner time to claim it by paying the taxes due, plus any delinquent penalties, the cost of storage and other charges related to the seizure of the vehicle.
If the vehicle is not claimed within 10 days, the vehicle may be sold by the director of finance at a public auction.
The use of the word "may" signifies that seizing and impounding a vehicle is a discretionary measure, Wauke said.
Because it would take too much time for an officer to oversee the impoundment of a vehicle, and because they often have higher priorities, officers generally will opt to just cite the owner, he said.
There also may be "mitigating circumstances" that a driver may claim in needing a vehicle, such as having no other way to pick up a child from school, for example, Wauke said.
However, Wauke said if the violations are obviously flagrant, then it's likely that a vehicle would be seized.
Despite what people may think, he said police do cite car owners for not having current registrations and safety checks. In 2002, for example, about 10,000 citations were handed out for expired registrations and 14,000 for expired safety stickers, Wauke said.
Many taxpayers to get $400
The IRS says eligible taxpayers who claimed the Child Tax Credit on their 2002 tax returns will automatically be receiving an advance payment of the 2003 increase in the credit, beginning the last week in July.The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 increased the maximum child tax credit for 2003 to $1,000 per child, up from $600. The Treasury Department has to provide the difference -- up to $400 per child -- as an advance payment to each eligible taxpayer this summer.
About 25 million taxpayers will be receiving the extra checks, and the IRS says they don't have to do anything except cash them.
The IRS will send notices to taxpayers on July 23, July 30 and Aug. 6 informing them of their advance payment amount, with the checks to be mailed out shortly afterward.
More information is available on the IRS Web site at www.irs.gov.
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